1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical stapling apparatus including surgical buttresses which are releasably attached to the surgical stapling apparatus, and in particular, to surgical stapling apparatus having surgical buttresses having at least a portion with increased rigidity and/or stability.
2. Background of Related Art
Surgical stapling apparatus are employed by surgeons to sequentially or simultaneously apply one or more rows of fasteners, e.g., staples or two-part fasteners, to body tissue for the purpose of joining segments of body tissue together. Such apparatus generally include a pair of jaws or finger-like structures between which the body tissue to be joined is placed. When the stapling apparatus is actuated, or “fired”, longitudinally moving firing bars contact staple drive members in one of the jaws. The staple drive members push the surgical staples through the body tissue and into an anvil in the opposite jaw which forms the staples. If tissue is to be removed or separated, a knife blade can be provided in the jaws of the apparatus to cut the tissue between the lines of staples.
A number of surgical stapling apparatus rely on secondary materials, such as adhesives or mounting structures (e.g., sutures) to maintain a surgical buttress on the stapling apparatus. The use of additional materials may leave a residue in the body after implantation and/or require increased firing forces as each material must be transected by the knife blade to detach the surgical buttress from the stapling apparatus.
It would be desirable to provide a buttress that may be releasably secured to a surgical stapling apparatus without the need for a secondary material or mounting structure.
Buttress materials that are formed from non-woven or mesh-like materials are known. These materials are relatively flexible and can shift on the surgical stapling apparatus. It may be desirable in at least certain applications to provide a buttress that has a stiffer construction or at least some stiffer portions to facilitate the placement of the buttress on the apparatus, or the placement of the buttress on tissue, or both.